7 Reasons Why We Recommend Shopify For Your eCommerce Business

At Traction Marketing, we work with a lot of clients who find themselves at the very start of their online journey, and who are looking for the best eCommerce platform possible. And no matter the industry they work in, or whether their business is large or small, our advice is always the same:

Choose Shopify.

This isn’t a paid advertisement. We aren’t getting any kickbacks from Shopify for sharing this opinion. We’ve simply tested the relevant options, and found that Shopify is comfortably the most complete, capable, usable and effective eCommerce platform around.

Why do we recommend Shopify? The reasons are many and varied, but here are seven of the most compelling.

It’s Easy To Set Up

Shopify allows you to build an eCommerce site by simply dragging and dropping elements into place. No code, no servers, no development costs, no worries! It also offers full HTML and CSS editing capabilities for those who have a bit of web development experience and want to add some personal flair to their site.

As one of the biggest players in the eCommerce game, you can find endless tutorials that show you exactly how to build something beautiful and get the most out of your site. What’s more, by taking advantage of their 14-day free trial (no credit card required), you can test the waters before committing.

Reliable, Secure, Super Supportive

As an eCommerce retailer, you’ll find yourself handling a wealth of private information, from addresses to credit card details. You need to ensure customer info is kept safe – something that Shopify takes care of automatically.

Hosted in the cloud, the Shopify platform is both super secure and super reliable. Security is updated constantly and automatically, and the dependability of the platforms means that your site will be live 24/7/365 – which also happens to be the hours that Shopify customer support is available to help via email, phone or live chat.

Mobile-optimised

Well over half of all web traffic is now mobile, and that number will continue to rise into the future. This means that if your eCommerce site isn’t mobile optimised, you’ll fail to reach over half of your potential audience, and therefore fail to make over half of your potential sales.

Ensuring your site is mobile-optimised can be a complicated and costly affair… unless you use Shopify. All Shopify themes and elements are mobile-optimised, ensuring your site looks great and works well on smartphones, without the need for any extra effort on your end.

Customisable themes

Speaking of themes, Shopify offers up over 80 professional themes in a mix of free and premium options. You’re sure to find one that offers the look and functionality that you want, but even if you can’t find the exact theme you’re after, don’t fret: each is endlessly customisable, able to be reconfigured, decorated, enhanced and painted in your brand’s colours.

Many of Shopify’s themes have been created by world-renowned designers and are built to suit any business in every industry. Along with the official Shopify theme store there are a wealth of third-party theme providers offering thousands upon thousands of themes.

SEO and marketing made easy

There’s not much point in creating a beautiful site if no one sees it. But as a Shopify user you’ll be better placed than most to get your online store in front of the most relevant eyes. Shopify offers a complete suite of search engine optimisation (SEO) and marketing tools designed to put your store up in lights.

This is the main reason why we are such big fans of Shopify. It offers us all the tools we need to help your business reach its customers, including SEO, email marketing, coupons and discount codes, social media integration, product reviews and more.

Abandoned cart recovery

You browse an online store, you place some items in your basket, and then you leave without making the purchase. It’s something that pretty much every online shopper has done before, and the reasons can be many and varied: you ran out of time, you found the purchase process confusing, you felt like you could get a better deal elsewhere, or you simply got distracted.

No less than 68.8% of online shopping carts are abandoned. If that sounds like a huge number, it’s because it is. But this means that abandoned carts are also a huge opportunity and one that Shopify users are perfectly placed to capitalise on. Shopify’s abandoned cart recovery service sends an automated email to anyone who abandons their cart, encouraging them to complete the purchase. It’s a simple yet incredibly effective way to generate more sales.

Endless integrations

Shopify is perhaps the most adaptable eCommerce solution available, and the key to this flexibility is in the wealth of integrations on offer. You can think of Shopify as the eCommerce equivalent of Android or iOS, with endless apps able to be downloaded and integrated, including:

• Marketing tools, including Facebook, Google Shopping and Mailchimp.
• Point of sale (POS) tools include Square, Vend, and Clover.
• Live chat, chatbot and help desk tools, like Freshdesk, Zendesk, LiveAgent and HelpDesk.
• Shipping and delivery integrations from NZ Post, NZ Couriers and Fastway.

Ultimately the most alluring thing about Shopify is the fact that it can be whatever you want it to be. The platform offers a rare combination of ease and adaptability, meaning you can make your store as simple or as complex as you want. And speaking from a marketing point of view, Shopify grants our team access to the tools we need to make your website a success.

If you’re wondering which eCommerce platform to choose, the answer – to us at least – is clear: it’s Shopify.